GoldenJCJ

I’m a big Villeneuve fan so I’m anticipating that I’ll really like this and will eagerly anticipate a sequel.

However, I know very little about the source material. I never read any of the books and only recall bits and pieces of Lynch’s mess of a movie so I really have no personal connection with the story. It’s entirely possible I’ll watch this movie, not care for it one bit, and couldn’t care less if Part 2 is made. I hope that’s not the case though…

milo bloom

It’s a good story underneath all the set dressing. The idea of powerful families maneuvering themselves into positions to take even more power and then coming to understand there’s even greater powers in the universe.

The sci-fi stuff is great but the book wouldn’t have been so popular if the themes didn’t resonate with people.

d2cheer

I am in the camp that thinks this will be a massive bomb. Unfortunately nothing really interests me about it and I really like Sci Fi movies.

DJariya

There’s a lot of people arguing online that Villeneuve is being an elitist asshole regarding his remarks.

dex14

He’s a French filmmaker. Being an elitist goes with the territory.

Dan

French-Canadian. Double-whammy.

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Jay G.

Pretty much every filmmaker is going to want their movie watched on the big screen. Even James Gunn said as much about The Suicide Squad, although he was more diplomatic about home viewing.
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018...h-flutter-1-0/
As for the two-parter, this has been known for over a year, but WB is in no way promoting that in the ads and marketing materials. It's frustrating that WB wouldn't commit to two films upfront, but almost no film franchise has had a studio commit to multiple films before the first one is released. There's LOTR, and Superman 1 & 2, and that's it. Compared to something like Harry Potter or Chronicles of Narnia, however, it's a bit more frustrating since this Dune will only be half of one novel, at least those would've still been a standalone self-contained movie if only the first film was ever made. I can see holding off on committing to adapting Dune Messiah, but at least make the entirety of the first book.

milo bloom

Yeah, it's so hard to understand why they wouldn't do it all at once. The pre-sales for streaming and such would cover it. Now, even if it does okay numbers and the sequel gets greenlit, they're going to want to cut the budget and it's going to suffer for it.

And the whole bit with seeing movies in the theaters is pretty elitist. How many of today's filmmakers grew up learning about films by renting VHS tapes or even watching on cable?

Movies only premier in theaters, but they live their lives on home video.

Dan

I mean...... it was a hyperbolic, one-line, sarcastic comment posted in a 500-word "exclusive" interview with a movie-based magazine owned by a gaming website. I don't think people should take it too seriously. But even if you take it at face value, he's not saying you can't enjoy and love and experience movies at home. Just that he feels his movie that he has crafted is best served in a cinema. It's no worse than anything Kubrick would have said, but it's a bit less diplomatic than someone like James Cameron (who re-framed some of his films for the 4:3 experience).

TGM

better chance of a Serenity 2 than Dune Part 2. book it.

milo bloom

Eh, Dune is a longtime franchise, Firefly/Serenity has some loyal fans but it's still a small group and I think we're way past any type of relaunch.

I agree it's going to be a problem getting the numbers for Dune 2, but let's not get overly hyperbolic.

Josh-da-man

They probably should have filmed the complete novel at once with the intent of breaking it up into two, or even three, movies, like Lord of the Rings.

Artman

I posted this in another thread, but it really depends if WB will consider Dune as an investment property (money loser) and go forward with it in a 5+yr plan - part 2, HBO Max shows, etc or not. I'm more hopeful hearing the director's comments, but of course it's all meant to just promote this film. I think he runs into the same issues Nolan has, in that he is so technically proficient, that his films end up very cold emotionally. Even with the latest trailer, with as many wow-moments it has visually, it's still very cold on any emotional level.

Toddarino

I’m still unclear about what he said that everyone is up in arms about.

RichC2

I can't think of many filmmakers that aren't pro-big screen for their big budget event movies, and even some of the lesser budget ones. The amount of time that goes into color choices, set designs, sound design, etc; gets lost on most home theater setups, and some might say it gets lost on phone screen and laptops as well.

Also, Villeneuve is better with characters than Nolan. Nolan makes puzzles which are fantastic but he usually treats his characters as puzzle pieces, not actual people.

DJariya

He's still unhappy about his movie getting 1st run views on TV as opposed to getting an exclusive theatrical window. And he compared it to riding a speed boat in a bath tub.

Toddarino

Well he’s 100% correct.

E Unit

Again, unusual circumstances. It’s not like he was singled out to get screwed over.

Jay G.

I'm not sure why he'd need to have been singled out to be justifiably upset. Just because the DMV sucks for everyone doesn't mean nobody can complain about the DMV.

Disney+ is releasing some films exclusively to theaters again, Like Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, which has a 45 day theatrical window. I'm guessing Villeneuve would prefer a situation like that for his film.

Dr. DVD

I remember the early trailers for the LOTR movies left a lot of non fantasy fans cold until the final trailer before the release, which got some people interested. I truly think LOTR was helped most when about a week before it was released it got a ton of award noms and made a lot of end of the year top ten lists. This generated a lot of interest with the casual viewer. It's in this regard that I think maybe Dune should have tried to stick with a December release as was originally supposed to happen last year. Coming out in late October means it could only get critical buzz and some from fans, and in all honesty, most people are in the mood of horror movies in that month. While I want to see it ASAP, I wouldn't be surprised if they delayed it one more time.

Jay G.

I think it may be difficult for many of us who are film fanatics to realize how little forethought and planning most moviegoers put into deciding what movies to see. For a lot of the theatergoing audience, the decision to go see a movie may be made on the day of release. It's why the actors have to run a press junket for hundreds of outlets for the week prior, and why the reviews come out the day of release. I remember as a teen, the decision process typically went with a group hanging out together deciding to go see a movie, and then looking to see what's playing nearby, and voting on what to see. Obviously, knowing something about the movie ahead of time would give some name recognition, but back then we'd be as likely to pull out the Friday paper and read the reviews, and nowadays kids can just pull up Rottentomatoes. Plus, there's going to be a demographic going to see it simply because Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya are in it.

I don't recall FOTR being nominated for awards before it premiered, and I doubt it being nominated for an AFI or something really drove the majority of people to the theaters.

Also, Dune wasn't originally supposed to come out December 2020, that was the pushback date from the original November 20, 2020 release date.

I doubt WB will move the date around again, because they want to keep the HBO Max premieres fairly evenly paced. Maybe this is because I'm not much of a horror fan, but I don't see why anyone would be inclined to only watch horror films in October. Like, sure, nice tie-in for horror films, but people can still want to watch other things. It's not like horror films aren't released year-round as well. It'd be like insisting people only want to watch Romcoms in February because of Valentine's Day, which Deadpool proved wrong.

One thing in Dune's favor in terms of getting people to watch it will be the one-month HBO Max window. There's going to be plenty of people willing to watch it because, hey, it's what's new on HBO Max that Friday and they already have the service, so why not? The movie could then benefit from word of mouth increasing views over the month, instead of just vanishing from theaters if the first week doesn't go well. The question will be how WB measures the "success" of Dune. It's not going to be just straight box office, so they'll have to look at number of views on HBO Max, how well it's being received by audiences, maybe online buzz, etc. It could be a situation where WB eats a loss on the first film, but realizes enough people saw and liked it that it merits a sequel that, hopefully, will be released in theaters after the COVID-19 pandemic is over and can gain the benefit of all those home viewers. It's like how the 2nd Austin Powers movie did so much better than the first, because the first movie only became really popular after it hit home video.

story

The thing that concerns me most is that with big productions like this, my understanding is they save tons of money by filming back to back. Now all those sets, the cast and crew, etc., can they get everything back up and together without tons more expense several years later?! Yes, obviously, that is how most sequels work. But since LOTR was brought up, that money-saving measure for a huge production was a big part of what helped it happen, IIRC.

DJariya

E Unit

Working version.

milo bloom

Depending on how they're adapting this, the second half of the story is more out in the desert, so it might be different sets that would have been needed anyways.

But, yeah, that's been my argument all along, that they're investing so much already, why not do just a bit more and do the whole thing at once?